Mark Lowndes talks about leadership development.

What are some of the leadership challenges you’re facing in the business?

I do a lot of reading about what’s happening in the legal profession and I think it’s clear the profession is changing at a fast pace and there are some quite large pressures on us. Clients are absolutely demanding more demonstrable value. There’s also a real skill shortage, because the people coming out of law school have a much greater range of career options, such as working in investment banking or consulting. So we’ve had to be really thoughtful about how we run our business and we’ve made some big changes this year, which I think have put us in a really strong position.

This year it’s very much been about learning. I’ve spent a bit of time this year in an organisation called Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, which is probably one of the best things I’ve done for myself in a long time. It’s advanced my thinking on the need to not get comfortable. You can’t just say ‘I’ve done this for 30 years, I must know it all’. When you’re busy it’s easy not to invest time in upskilling and challenging your personal practices, but learning is an ongoing journey.